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JohnnyBarnes wrote:

holtonian wrote:

bigthunder wrote:
Have to say it is a longtime since i felt so angry at a Watford performance and particularly the managers contribution to this mess

so many times changes are made , i can understand that to a point BUT 5 for this game totally gave the initiative to struggling Charlton team , no doubt chris powell said to his team , there you go they think this will be a walk over with them making so many changes , did the trick as fired them up no end , 1st mistake Zola

then surprise surprise it is the forwards and midfielders who are changed / rested whatever you want to call it however it is our defensive which is our weak link!!

We cannot keep a flaming clean sheet !! yet still Hoban elkstrand play on , caught up with hoban in particular today , 2nd mistake Zola

then goalkeeper is injured so obvious particulary causing the second goal as he was rooted to the spot , then went down when goal went in , yet still came out for second half and guess what another cross to a free header as the useless neuton looked on and goalie stayed on his line , 3rd mistake zola

personally could not give a monkeys if we win at city , laughable as that sounds with this defence , city would have got double figures today , 3 at the back against them particulary if that awful player neuton plays will be suicide , over to you zola , your tinkering cost us massively today and after such a good result Saturday .

YOU thought we just had to turn up to beat Charlton , saturdays team with the momentum would have beat this charlton team , they not only beat us but scored 4 goals at our place , shocking day poor management and as i said i am so angry

we will NOT win FA cup we have a chance of play offs or more yet todays team showed you must play your in form best team , feel very let down today , managed to persuade a couple of floating wfc fans to attend today , they looked at me as if i was daft having witnessed that performance ,

sorry Gianfranco you have done decent so far but what on earth you were thinking today i do not know so disappointed , wish i could say a decent side beat us , they did not , think we started to beleive all the good press after saturday ?”

Gianfranco was rotating as best he could,easy to be critical after this loss, but not very fair comment after what Gianfranco and staff have achieved thus far.

I agree. Absolute joke of a post that last one. To turn around and lambast Zola after the season we've had so far shows how little some of our fans know about football... and how ungrateful they are as well.

The bottom line today was that we don't have a proper number two, Fitz Hall is vital to our back line and John Eustace is still on the road to recovery - none of which is Zola's fault
and to say that he put the FA Cup before the league is laughable. Only freak players can play Wednesday, Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday and not be burnt out by March. If Zola played Vydra and Deeney every game, we got into the play-offs and they had nothing left, the same people whinging on here today would be moaning that he didn't rotate during the season!

To Zola: the way you've kept a massive squad happy and got them all to gel so quickly is a credit to you. We're playing some of the best, if not THE best, football that this club has ever enjoyed... and I thank you and the Pozzos for everything you've done so far - which is nothing compared to what I'm sure you'll continue to do over the coming years. Some of our 'fans' would seem to prefer it if our thieving old chairman came back to oversee a kick-and-rush team of average players. I am not one of them. Today's not the last time we'll get a below-par performance from your boys, but you've learnt from every one of them so far and the improvement in half a season has been remarkable.

Hats off to you for the work that you're doing... and long may it continue.

agree Johnny barnes you legend"

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Gianfranco Zola was critical of Watford’s “sloppy” first-half performance after his side’s 4-3 defeat to Charlton Athletic this afternoon.

Despite taking an early lead through Daniel Pudil’s first goal for the club, the Hornets were very disappointing in the opening period and found themselves behind at the break after a Tommie Hoban own goal and Yann Kermorgant’s header.

Zola’s side needed to improve after the break, and they did, taking the lead by midway through the second half thanks to an Almen Abdi penalty and Alex Geijo. However, Kermorgant turned in the equaliser before Johnnie Jackson won the three points 12 minutes from time.

The Watford boss said: “I think that today the reason why we didn’t win is we gave away 45 minutes, something you cannot afford in this Championship. Maybe we had too many compliments the other day [after beating Brighton] and we went on the pitch with probably not the same awareness they had because they were winning all the second balls, they were winning all the headers and they found themselves 2-1 doing little, it was more us allowing them to get into the game.

“No disrespect towards them but we let them get into the game too much because we were not sharp enough. That sharpness for me comes mainly because we didn’t manage to get the attention right and you can’t afford that in this league.

“The second half was better. We tried to get the rhythm a little bit better, higher, more quality in the passing but unfortunately our defending today as well wasn’t the best. It’s disappointing but a good lesson again for us. We will certainly next time be aware that after a good game you need to make sure you get the same concentration.”

Although one change was enforced following Fitz Hall’s hamstring injury in the win at Brighton & Hove Albion, Zola also chose to drop Ikechi Anya, Troy Deeney and Matej Vydra down to the bench, while Jonathan Hogg was left out of the matchday squad.

Asked if he regretted making five changes, he replied: “Not at all. I’ve made them before and it worked. I don’t think the problem lies in there, I think it was more like that [they] just didn’t focus.

“The players that played, Geijo, Forestieri, they did quite well, so I don’t think the fact we changed many players has got something to do with the game.”

Zola added later: “We went in front but we were not certainly the normal time that we are. The passing wasn’t good enough, we were sloppy, honestly, we were sloppy and it was very costly. We tried to get into the game, in the second half we did better, but sometimes it’s too late. If you don’t prepare and you aren’t mentally [focused] before the game, it becomes very, very difficult to do when you are in the game.”